


King

by misbehavingvigilante



Series: Language [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 12:04:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7267423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misbehavingvigilante/pseuds/misbehavingvigilante
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or the one where Gabriel Reyes knows how to make friends, it's other people who are the problem.</p>
<p>And then, there's Morrison.</p>
            </blockquote>





	King

**Author's Note:**

> I was absolutely giddy at all the feedback the other fic got, so I decided to write another one. This one is a prequel. That said, the next thing I write in this series will likely take a while. I'm chronically ill so I can't afford to push myself as much as a healthy person could.
> 
> Just a reminder, I'm not fluent in Spanish, so there's bound to be some mistakes possibly more than last time because this fic uses a lot more Spanish. But I figured since this is from Gabriel's POV that would only make sense.
> 
> **/Edit/ Once again thanks to[Chiwibel](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiwibel/pseuds/Chiwibel) this has now been updated with corrected Spanish. **
> 
> Another note, I'm a white girl from the south so I know nothing about experiencing racial microaggressions so if I wrote something indelicately let me know and I'll try my best to fix it. 
> 
> Shoutout to that one person in the reaper76 tag on tumblr who mentioned the song [Infected Mushroom - Becoming Insane](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxhTbxMSvT0) as a good song for them. I listened to it non stop writing this. 
> 
> As always, translations are available by hovering over the Spanish text, and or at the end notes.

"¡Come mierda, cabrón!" Gabriel said as he stormed off leaving his ex friend in the dust. 

Ignoring the calls of Reyes behind him with ease, he was very good at burning bridges. Basic training hadn't been great so far not that Gabriel had expected it to be given it's premise, still he hadn't expected that the worst thing about it would have been the people going through it with him.

For one reason or another, they just hadn't gotten along. One asshole in particular had gone to pronouncing his name with particular emphasis on the -es part as ass and it had caught on much to his chagrin. But Gabriel just knew how it would end up if he had mentioned it to anyone in charge, so he held his tongue. It wasn't worth the effort when he'd only be told to grow thicker skin or that it was something harmless that they hadn't meant to, they just couldn't pronounce his name. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes, they couldn't learn how to pronounce his name, but he was always expected to learn theirs. 

He'd managed one friend nearly halfway through, and it had seemed fine. Granted, Gabriel had been especially homesick since his training took place in Seattle, of all places. It always seemed to be raining, when it wasn't raining it was overcast, and even when it was sunny, it never felt particularly warm. Gabriel hated it, and missed the hot temperatures even if on occasion there was the risk of heat stroke or something equally as dangerous, it was home. 

In hindsight, his judgement was likely a bit affected so it's why Gabriel hadn't seen the warning signs until now. 

So when said friend had asked him in the past about a few Spanish phrases, he obliged. It felt good to speak it when he hadn't really been able to do so otherwise. Part of the thing about basic training was to put your civilian life behind you so it had limited connection with the outside world in the form of written letters. 

It had all come to fruition today, though with what were demands to broaden education which had made it crystal clear to Gabriel that any friendship between them had only been because of that. And that had been the end of that, he wasn't going to be anyone's teacher, much less out of deception. 

It was annoying that this wasn't even the first time this had happened either.

Gabriel felt almost like wearing a sign stating '¡No estoy aquí para que tú aprendas español!' not that his targeted demographic would have been able to read it, but still.

Fuck all these people, Gabriel could only hope that after graduation, he'd grabbed an assignment far, far away from them all.

 

 

 

Luck is apparently on his side, and Gabriel gets his wish he doesn't see anyone from basic here. 

The weather could be better. It's not as warm or sunny as LA, it still rains too much but nowhere near Seattle bad. But now the rain is far more bitter to him than it used to be before where it could be a welcome reprieve, not it just reminds him of isolation.

His youngest sister remarked on it. "Mi hermano es un gato porque él es nunca feliz cuando llueve."

"Eso no es verdad." Gabriel twitched, although he replied back in a calm tone. He wasn't going to lash out at his baby sister. Now his older sister, sure, she was fair game. His middle sister, it depended on if his mother was around because they were so close in age, but she was still younger than him but not his beloved baby sister. The window aside him seemed to mock him with a heavier pattering of rain against it. 

He had taken refuge in a lesser used staircase because of it's distance from everything, it wasn't frequent. Gabriel would have stayed in his room, but those he shared it with were there, and he hadn't wanted to take this call around them. Now he was especially glad he had not when the not so great singing voice of his sister was coming through the phone. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes, he didn't want to hear this. "¿Cómo te fue en la escuela?" 

"Hermano, por favor. ¡No quiero hablar sobre la escuela!" A shrill whine ended the singing that had proclaimed him a cat, Gabriel smirked. It worked every time, sure, it may have been a little cruel of him, but he always backed off within the next moment if his demands were met. 

"Entonces, no soy un gato." 

"Sí, sí. ¿Ahora no más sobre la escuela?"

"No más." Gabriel agreed, glad that their conservation could go away from all this talk about cats and rain. All he had managed to say to his sister before this was that it was raining again, so now they could hopefully talk about something else like maybe how the rest of the family was doing-

"¿Tú sabes cómo hacer amigos?"

Gabriel blinked at the question. Then again, he should have known better. He hadn't really discussed his lack of camaraderie with his fellow soldiers but with his older sister and mother, so one of them must have told her a watered down version of events. 

Eventually, Gabriel settled on the closest version to the truth. "Sé cómo. Ellos no quieren hacerse amigos conmigo."

 

 

 

"El arroz es una mierda" Gabriel muttered to himself, he wasn't sure why he was surprised. At basic, it had been shit as well, and he shouldn't have taken the chance. He really need to go exploring around the city for some good food joints because this was just not going to cut it. 

It shouldn't be too hard to find a few places he could have on rotation so didn't get bored. 

"Verdad."  

Gabriel arched an eyebrow, he hadn't met anyone else who spoken Spanish. Granted, he'd only been on base for a few days now so it wasn't surprising. There was a lot of ground to cover. But he recognized this person as one of the people he shared his quarters with. You could never really tell who spoke what language just by looking at them, or even by their last name.

Still, Castillo was a rather Spanish last name, Gabriel wasn't sure of the exact etymology of the word but he was pretty sure it came from Spain.

It's surprisingly and even deceptively easy from there on to establish a friendship talking shit about the cafeteria food. 

 

 

 

Gabriel is a bit wary with his last experience looming over his friend to let the relationship anything but casual but rather impersonal. Although, he's certain without it, he'd still be a bit wary. He'd been raised to be cautious so he didn't do stupid shit by his mother. So it was rather hard wired into him to be suspicious where others would be trusting. 

Still, it leads to a few other friends - Díaz and Valdez - by association and all of them speak Spanish, too. The regionalisms either due to where they or their family was born does on occasion lead to confusion and laughter.  

"Y las cartas a mi familia. Cuán viejo, qué..." 

Gabriel was listening to Castillo go on about the woes of basic training before something or rather someone else had his attention. A tall blond with blue eyes who fit the picturesque image of what most people still thought of as American. Despite that, Gabriel found his eyes roaming over the other. With skin like that, he'd likely blush up a storm with no chance of hiding it. 

It was an appealing enough image to make Gabriel curious."¿Quién es él?" 

"Su nombre es Morrison, creo. ¿Por qué?" 

Gabriel doesn't give an answer. Fortunately, Castillo likes listening to himself talk so it's dropped as they continue their conservation down one of the covered overhangs of the base. He doesn't really need to pay attention to what's been saying because he can tell through tone alone, it's just more bitching so Gabriel thinks more about the pretty blond they had passed by. 

Besides, it was probably just an one time thing. The base was big after all, no sense in wasting a chance to savor a moment when it wasn't likely to happen again.

 

 

 

Of course, Gabriel is forced to eat his words when he does actually run into Morrison not three days later. 

It happened due to a rotation in certain responsibilities around the base, these things happened when new personnel had come on, it messed up how neat and orderly things were supposed to have gone. 

Morrison is of course one of those people who feels like they have to introduce themselves to everyone. 

"Hi, I'm Morrison."

The introduction had been paired with a blinding, bright smile that overwhelmed Gabriel who couldn't help but mutter under his breath. "Tiene una sonrisa como el sol."

Because of course he did, what kind of all american man could he be without it. Even the weather seemed to agreed with Morrison, no longer was the day dull and gray like it had been this morning due to stubborn clouds refusing to break away but now the sun had come in. When not twenty damn minutes ago, it had looked like it might rain again.

But oh no, apparently the sun had to shine for Morrison.

That solidified the beginnings of annoyance within Gabriel, because it was one thing to glance at Morrison from a distance and find him attractive as a sort of one over thought. It was another to apparently be faced with the fact they'd likely be running into each other more often now. 

"Reyes." Gabriel offered, not caring if his annoyance showed better now than later. 

Undeterred, Morrison asked. "Was that Spanish?" 

That however peeked Gabriel's interest. "You speak Spanish?" 

"Uh... no." Morrison said, maybe a little too slowly and perhaps even nervously. "I don't speak Spanish at all. Sorry." 

Gabriel rolled his eyes, of course he didn't. That was another reason for his annoyance to grow, and hopefully kill his attraction. The last thing he needed was some other white boy that wanted to befriend him to learn Spanish. And besides, he hated how people often overly elaborated how they didn't speak Spanish after he'd asked because he had asked them in English before so obviously he knew how to speak it. 

God, he was getting pissed off but Morrison had the nerve to speak again. 

"It's great that you're bilingual though. Being able to speak in two different languages must give you quite an edge." 

There was a lot of mutual intelligibility in the remaining romance languages that thanks to Gabriel knowing Spanish did help him understand them to a greater degree than the average English speaker, but he didn't say that. Mostly because Morrison had sounded so damn earnest that it didn't seem like he was being condescending. 

It was surprising how often other people didn't understand how much knowing a second language helped. Then again, Gabriel was also quite petty, so he didn't shake off such insults and slammed back into said idiots with facts when he felt like schooling someone. 

"Shut up, Morrison." Gabriel said but it lacked a lot of heat. 

Morrison kept his smile. 

Gabriel wondered where this sunshine had come from. "Where are you from?" 

"Indiana." Morrison replied. "I'd tell you the town, but you probably wouldn't know it. We have a population of about three hundred." 

"Bumfuck nowhere, got it." That certainly explained the all american image, they were probably stuck in the past out there. But Gabriel didn't say that. "I'm from Los Angeles." 

"What's that like? I've never really been in cities before I joined up." 

Gabriel had to process that for a moment. "Por supuesto que no." Morrison must be absolutely helpless in a city. He was tall and athletic enough to be imposing if he wasn't so friendly so Gabriel knew he was probably a prime target for muggings and all other things a farm boy wouldn't know how to deal with. 

Then again, Morrison was a solider now, he had at least completed basic training, looking far too fresh faced to have accomplished anymore than that. 

It wasn't his responsibility to look after Morrison. Gabriel finally answered his question, though. "LA is warm and sunny. Very crowded but lively. It would eat you alive." 

And maybe, Gabriel might have wanted to do that too but he didn't have to be happy about it. 

 

 

 

After that, Morrison apparently thinks they're friends. 

Gabriel isn't sure how to feel about this, but ignoring him now seems like a lot of effort when Morrison makes every effort to say something to him each time they see each other. Even if it's only his last name in acknowledgement usually accompanied by a quick smile. 

It doesn't matter who is around him, either, so it quickly becomes common knowledge that they're friends although Gabriel doesn't exactly remember agreeing to that in so many words. Apparently, he gave must have gave off Morrison the idea that they're friends instead of just simple acquaintances. He can't say he doesn't like the attention. 

"Tu amigo es muy sociable." Valdez puts it gently, because Gabriel sure as hell would have used a different word to describe how overwhelming Morrison could be. 

"No quiero oír esto."

 

 

 

"Where are your friends?" Morrison asked him when he's alone during one lunch. 

There's a simple answer for that, but Gabriel sees no reason to inform Morrison of it. Wondering more just what the other wants with him now. "Does it matter?" 

"I guess not." Morrison seemed to wisely deduce he didn't want to talk about it. "Can I sit with you?" 

Gabriel wasn't sure he was up for anymore interaction today than necessary. "Don't you have friends?" 

"I thought we were friends?" 

And Gabriel doesn't even have to look at Morrison to hear how sincere he sounds. "Más como tú..." His response falls flat when he actually looks at Morrison who looks genuinely upset. He doesn't look very far off from a lip quiver, his mouth already turned into a frown, and those blue eyes wide with emotion. "Mierda." 

Gabriel might be flipping back and forth here, but he can't help it. "Sit." 

Morrison to his credit looked confused and then skeptical as if it was a joke of some sort. 

"Don't make me tell you again." 

On that command, Morrison sat. It was wrong time to discover he liked telling Morrison what to do, but nevertheless the thought occurred to Gabriel. "I'm just annoyed. It was nothing you did, I have this sister who is a nightmare." 

"Only one?"

Morrison seemed more or less back to his usual self now. Gabriel noted, as he answered, "No, I have three of them. I'm older than two of them, and one of them is older than me." 

"No brothers, then?"

"No."

"So which sister did what?" 

Despite the rough start, he does end up telling Morrison everything. Maybe it's because he had already made his remaining friends dart off after he'd been in such a royal mood he lashed out at them, or maybe because it's easy to talk to Morrison. Either way, Gabriel isn't too keen to examine the exact reasons why, and if after that he started to eat with Morrison more no one said anything because they already believed they were friends. 

Only difference is maybe this time it was actually mutual. 

 

 

 

None of his friends take an issue with Morrison which Gabriel is grateful for because it means he doesn't have to pick sides. 

The same cannot be said for some of Morrison's friend who aren't overly fond of him. Not that Gabriel picks a fight with them, he might say some very choice things about them under his breath in Spanish. 

Morrison never comments on it, though. 

Which in turn makes Gabriel curious as to why exactly. Is Morrison just ignoring him when he speaks Spanish and quietly waiting for him to turn back to English or what. "Why don't you say anything when I speak Spanish?" 

"Well... like I said, I don't speak Spanish. But just because I don't doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to say it around me." 

For some reason, his question made Morrison a little flushed. Gabriel has an idea what's that about, though it doesn't happen to him very frequently, it's happened before. Some people just like it when a foreign language is spoken, doesn't matter what if you just read out a grocery list, they would still like it.

Considering Gabriel still has a thing for Morrison, he's happy to make this discovery. 

"Bueno saberlo." 

**Author's Note:**

> "¡Come mierda, cabrón!" - Eat shit, dumbass.  
> '¡No estoy aquí para que tú aprendas español!' - I am not here for you to learn Spanish.  
> "Mi hermano es un gato porque él es nunca feliz cuando llueve." - My brother is a cat because he is never happy when it rains.  
> "Eso no es verdad." - That is not true.  
> "¿Cómo te fue en la escuela?" - How is school?  
> "Hermano, por favor. ¡No quiero hablar sobre la escuela!"- Brother, please. I don't want to talk about school.  
> "Entonces, no soy un gato." - Then, I am not a cat.  
> "Sí, sí. ¿Ahora no más sobre la escuela?"- Yes, yes. Now no more school?  
> "No más." - No more.  
> "¿Tú sabes cómo hacer amigos?" - Do you know how to make friends?  
> "Sé cómo. Ellos no quieren hacerse amigos conmigo." - I know how. They don't want to be friends with me.  
> "El arroz es una mierda."- The rice is shit.  
> "Verdad." - True.  
> "Y las cartas a mi familia. Cuán viejo, qué..."- And the letters to my family. How old, what...  
> "¿Quién es él?" - Who is he?  
> "Su nombre es Morrison, creo. ¿Por qué?" - His name is Morrison, I think. Why?  
> "Tiene una sonrisa como el sol." - He has a smile like the sun.  
> "Por supuesto que no". - Of course, you have not.  
> "Tu amigo es muy sociable." - Your friend is very social.  
> "No quiero oír esto." - I don't want to hear this.  
> "Más como tú..." - More like you...  
> "Mierda." - Shit.  
> "Bueno saberlo."- Good to know.  
> 


End file.
